Miron Radu Paraschivescu

Miron Radu Paraschivescu
File:Miron Radu Paraschivescu.jpg
Born	(1911-10-02)October 2, 1911 Zimnicea, Teleorman County, Romania
Died	Bucharest, Romania
Pen name	MRP
Language	Romanian
Nationality	Romania
Citizenship	Romania
Education	Department of Letters and Philosophy
Alma mater	University of Bucharest
Period	1929-1971
Notable works	Cântice ţigăneşti
Notable awards	The Romanian Academy's "George Coșbuc" Award (1956)

Miron Radu Paraschivescu (October 2, 1911– February 17, 1971) was a Romanian poet, essayist, journalist, and translator.

Born in Zimnicea, Teleorman County, he went to high school in Ploiești, after which he studied fine arts, first in Cluj and later in Bucharest without graduating. He enrolled then at the Letters and Philosophy Department of the University of Bucharest.

A leftist in his youth (he joined the Union of Communist Youth in 1933), he wrote for many leftist papers and magazines of those days: "Cuvîntul liber", "Azi", "Facla", "Viața românească", "Era nouă", "Lumea românească", "Timpul", "Ecoul", "România liberă", "Scînteia", sometimes under a pen name, among them Emil Soare and Paul Scorțeanu. After World War II, he wrote many propagandistic articles although it seems that he never became a member of the Communist Party.

Being on friendly terms with many communist leaders from their days in the underground, like Gogu Rădulescu, Miron Constantinescu, Constanţa Crăciun, Iosif Chişinevschi, Leonte Răutu, he was considered "invulnerable", and got away with criticizing the regime, mostly in private, when anybody else would have ended in prison for the same offence. Although he hoped, due to his antifascist past, to be given important government positions like his former comrades, he never got any, being sent instead to work for several magazines and papers.

He and Sorin Toma bitterly criticized Tudor Arghezi in 1948, accusing him of being a representative of "decadent, bourgois art".

In 1965, Paraschivescu took charge of the readers' column at the literary magazine Ramuri in Craiova, changing it in May 1966 into a four-page literary supplement called Povesta vorbei ("The Tale of Talk"). It lasted only six numbers. He transformed it into a meeting place for a number of young avantgarde writers who had difficulty getting published by the established literary press. Among them were: Leonid Dimov, Virgil Mazilescu, Dumitru Țepeneag, Iulian Neacșu and Sanziana Pop.

Known for being sometimes a "difficult person" and a "big mouth", Paraschivescu was hospitalized at least twice in mental institutions.

Somewhat of a Don Juan, Paraschivescu was married five times.

Writings

• Oameni şi aşezări din Ţara Moţilor şi a Basarabilor, Craiova, 1938
• Cântice ţigăneşti, Bucureşti, 1941; illustrated by Marcel Chirnoagă, Bucureşti, 1972
• Pâine, pământ şi ţărani, Craiova, 1943
• Cântare României, Bucureşti, 1951
• Laude, Bucureşti, 1953
• Laude şi alte poeme, Bucureşti, 1959
• Declaraţia patetică, Bucureşti, 1960
• Poezii, Bucureşti, 1961
• Declaraţia patetică. Cântice ţigăneşti. Laude şi alte poeme, Bucureşti, 1963
• Bâlci la Râureni, Bucureşti, 1964
• Versul liber, Bucureşti, 1965
• Drumuri şi răspântii, Bucureşti, 1967
• Tristele, Bucureşti, 1968
• Scrieri, vol. I-II, Bucureşti, 1969, vol. III-IV, Bucureşti, 1974-1975
• Poeme, Bucureşti, 1971
• Ultimele, Bucureşti, 1971
• Poezii, edited and afterword by Ioan Adam, Bucureşti, 1973
• Amintiri, Bucureşti, 1975
• Journal d'un heretique, translated by Claude Jaillet, foreword by de Virgil Ierunca, Paris, 1976; edition (Jurnalul unui cobai. 1940-1954), edited by Maria Cordoneanu, foreword by Vasile Igna, Cluj Napoca, 1994
• Povestind copiilor, Bucureşti, 1990
• Jurnalul unui cobai, 1994
• Poeme, Iaşi, 2000

Translations

• Marie-Anne Desmarest, Torente, Bucureşti, 1943
• Konstantin Simonov, Apărarea Moscovei, Bucureşti, 1944
• Nikolai Tikhonov, Istorisiri din Leningrad, Bucureşti, 1944
• Mikhail Sholokhov, Şcoala urii, Bucureşti, 1944
• Jean Richard Bloch, Toulon, Bucureşti, 1945
• Alexander Pushkin, Basme..., illustrated by Th. Kiriacoff-Suruceanu, Bucureşti, 1945, Ruslan şi Ludmila, Bucureşti, 1951
• Translations of eight European poets, illustrated by Mircea Alitanti, Bucureşti, 1946
• Claude Roy, Parisul răsculat, Bucureşti, 1946
• Maxim Gorki, Univesităţile mele, Bucureşti, 1948
• N.A. Nekrasov, Poeme alese, Bucureşti, 1953, Gerul, moşu cu nasu roşu, Bucureşti, 1955, Opere alese, I-III, Bucureşti, 1955-1959, Femeile ruse. Decembristele, Bucureşti, 1956
• Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz sau Ultima încălcare de pământ în Lituania, foreword by Olga Zaicik, Bucureşti, 1956, Poezii, Bucureşti, 1957 (with Vlaicu Bârna şi Virgil Teodorescu), Poezii, Bucureşti 1959
• Juliusz Slowacki, Ceasul meditării, illustrated by Mihu Vulcănescu, Bucureşti, 1962
• Giuseppe Ungaretti, Poezii, Bucureşti, 1963 (with Alexandru Balaci)
• Andre Malraux, Calea regală, Bucureşti, 1971

Awards

• The Romanian Academy's "George Coșbuc" Award (1956)
• Honorary citizen of Vălenii de Munte (post-mortem, 2011)

References

• Aurel Sasu, Dicționar biografic al literaturii române (M-Z), Paralela 45, Pitești, 2006, pp. 300–301